Here's an idiot question on rest.

[Outstanding]

If I am doing each lift one day each week; deadlifts on Mondays, bench on Wednesdays and squats on Fridays, do I need to space them out with rest days in between? In other words, I am deadlifting every seven days. Do I need to have rest days between deadlift days and bench days, or could I do all my weights on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays? My intuition says to have rest days in between any heavy lifting, but wonder what the evidence is. Thanks.

[manveer]

No, you don't need a day off to rest between deadlifts and bench press. Upper body recovery is pretty quick.

[MBasic]

what maveer said.

I might do 4 days a week tho; squat / bench / dead / press

[Culican]

I actually do 4 days a week in a row (due to my work schedule), bench / squat / press /dead. I have tried other orders but I prefer the deadlift day to be the last of the four.

[Prunesquallor]

I used to do 4 days a week, one day per lift, but stalled out pretty quickly. I have done better since I went back to a standard Starting Strength novice program.

I think Sullivan (Barbell Prescription) is on to something with his contention that the older athlete de-trains quickly; the only exercise you want to do just once a week is the deadlift.

[johnnys]

I used to do 4 days a week, one day per lift, but stalled out pretty quickly. I have done better since I went back to a standard Starting Strength novice program.

I think Sullivan (Barbell Prescription) is on to something with his contention that the older athlete de-trains quickly; the only exercise you want to do just once a week is the deadlift.

Not sure about that - I've been making decent progress on a version of Baker's How to Train Without a Plan plan, lifting 2 lifts on 2 days/week (squat/press Wednesday, bench/dead Sundays) - one heavy low volume set, a four-ish rep backoff and a seven-ish rep backoff.

[chrisd]

Not sure about that - I've been making decent progress on a version of Baker's How to Train Without a Plan plan, lifting 2 lifts on 2 days/week (squat/press Wednesday, bench/dead Sundays) - one heavy low volume set, a four-ish rep backoff and a seven-ish rep backoff.

How long have you been making progress on that plan ?

[johnnys]

How long have you been making progress on that plan ?

Started in March with a bit of a reset, after a run of a couple cycles of 8/5/2. Just tested 1RMs and added 60lbs to my total from a year ago (maybe even 75, but got greedy on 3rd attempt). I don't expect this will last a whole lot longer, but makes me feel a lot better about what it takes to "maintain".

[Tim K]

If I am doing each lift one day each week; deadlifts on Mondays, bench on Wednesdays and squats on Fridays, do I need to space them out with rest days in between? In other words, I am deadlifting every seven days. Do I need to have rest days between deadlift days and bench days, or could I do all my weights on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays? My intuition says to have rest days in between any heavy lifting, but wonder what the evidence is. Thanks.

I think it's better to space it out but not 100% necessary. The traditional Bench/Squat/Off/Press/Deadlift split is what I do and it's nice because the bench and press don't leave you significantly fatigued for squats and deads the next day, whereas doing the heavier lower body lifts first might have some impact on your upper body lifts the next day if you're going real heavy (more of an issue for press though since there is more overlap). It also spaces the squat and deadlift out more and gives you a full day off between them. Sometimes I'm not able to lift on Friday so I have to do all four days in a row and I can feel it on my deadlift day. I'm sure you can make progress doing MTW but it's not ideal for recovery.

I used to do 4 days a week, one day per lift, but stalled out pretty quickly. I have done better since I went back to a standard Starting Strength novice program.

Sure, but if you are at the stage in your training where you can make progress on the novice LP then you are still a novice and a 4 day split is not appropriate anyway.